he is running two points behind. that's within to watch. last polls close in texas about an hour ago. some closed two hours ago. some closed an hour ago. results are still coming in. we'll let you know more here on msnbc tonight as we learn it. now time for "the last word." good wednesday morning. right now on "first look." obama's vision. the president lays out his plans for america's pullout from afghanistan ahead of this speech at west point today. nbc news exclusive. the most wanted man edward snowden speaks out to brian williams. >> somber occasion honoring the victim of the uk santa barbara killing. plus one heck a tornado captured on tape. google's driverless cars with no steering wheel and team usa warms up for the world cup. good wednesday morning to you, i'm frances rivera. after a decade of fighting in avenue zan stan, today, we should rern more about america's

vision for an end to war. there he is expected to describe plans for what he calls a new capture in the story of american leadership. nbc tracie potts is live in washington with more. tracey, what can we expect to hear from the president? >> reporter: well, frances we're told he'll have a middle of the road course, unafraid to team up with the rest of the world against russia, but also careful for a military not to be overly aggressive. this morning's west point speech comes after president obama announced 9,800 troops will stay in afghanistan after the war ends in december. that war will gradually drop to about 1,000 over the next two years. their job, training training forces. >> this will a allow us to redirect some of the resources

saved in these wars tour respond more nimbly to the changing threat of terrorism. >> reporter: leaving boots on the ground for result in the president signing a bilateral agreement. >> an ongoing security partnership to pull u.s. forces out the way president obama is seen set on doing here. >> how long they'll be in our country should be driven by the national security imperatives, not by the president's entire for political legacy. >> reporter: that vision, a big picture for foreign policy after afghanistan is what the president will outline at west point today. and that speech today, frances, is really going to kick off a couple weeks where the president focuses on foreign policy. he's not another couple weeks planned for the first days of june, that trip is to commemorate the anniversary of "d" day. >> tracie potts, thank you so

much. msnbc will have live coverage of the president's address at west point this morning at 10:15 eastern. tonight, we will hear from edward snowden, the 30-year-old responsible for the most staggering theft in american secrets and the modern era. he is wanted on espionage charges. nbc's brian williams met with him in moscow. snowden has spoken about what he's never talked about before for government. right up until he put an end to it. >> were you trained as a spy? it seems to me spies probably look a lot more like ed snowden and a lot less like james bond these days? >> well, it's no secret that the u.s. tends to get more and better intelligence out of computers nowadays than they do out of people. i was trained as a spy in sort of a traditional sense of the world in that i lived and worked

under cover, overseas, pretending to work in a job that i'm not. and even being assigned a name that was not mine. but i am a technical specialist, i am a technical expert. i don't work with people. i don't recruit agents. what i do is i put systems to work for the united states. and i've done that at all levels from the bottom on the ground all the way to the top. now, the government might deny these things. they might frame it in certain ways and say he's a low-level analyst but what they're trying to do is they're trying to use one position that i've had in a career here or there to distract from the totality of my experience which is that i've worked for the central intelligence agency under cover, overseas. i've worked for the national security agency undercover, overseas and i've worked for the defense intelligence agency as a

lecturer at the joint training academy where i developed sources and methods for keeping our information and people secure in the most hostile and dangerous environments around the world. so when they say i'm a low-level systems administrator that i don't know what i'm talking about i'd say it's somewhat misleading. >> hear more from edward snowden in an hour-long prime time special tonight at 10:00 on your local stations. students are paying respects to those killed in last week's violent attack in santa barbara. thousands joined for a memorial to remember the six lives cut short in a stabbing and shooting spree. >> we are here because we want to share memories of the young lives struck down far too soon. >> my son died and i -- >> richard martinez, the father of one of the victims, spoke about the problem on msnbc's

"last word. "account. >> my son died and i believe it could have been prevented. i mean, we're americans. we're supposed to be a can-do country. i find it inconceivable and unacceptable that this has become a normalized condition in society. it's outrageous. i mean, why has it taken as many people to die, kids to die? it's insane. >> authorities say 22-year-old elliot rodgers killed six people before killing himself. a gas station takedown. >> going to the wrong side southbound in the northbound lanes against traffic and just go anyway. >> a man driving a stolen container truck valved up to 90 miles an hour on a freeway occasionally exiting to side streets. the driver once looped around the gas station before getting back on the highway.

three hours later it ended at a gas station. the driver faces charge for stealing a truck and allegedly trying to run over an officer in ontario. sports headlines, we begin with the nbc western conference finals. >> westbrook with the steal. knocked it away. westbrook leans back, sets it up. >> oklahoma city whipped up the home crowd with fastbreak points. they dominated san antonio on both sides of the court. the spurs showed some fight. kevin durant two of 31 here. russell westbrook, right down the middle. 105-992, okc ties the series 2-2. an attorney for donald sterling said he will fight to the bloody end to keep his team. the document said, quote, a jealous rant to a lover never intended to be published cannot offend the nba rules.

a june 3rd hearing is next up where league owners can force sterling to sell that team. in the nhl eastern conference finals, rangers with ray bourque sets a free. and dan wiese is ejected. the rangers still lead the series 3-2. >> tonight, get to throw out the first pitch. a little nervous, excited. >> excited. >> you know what i think i'm going to throw a strike. >> but instead, not so much. his first pitch is a mile outside of strike zone. sorry, fiddy. that's got to be one of the worst. but it's still better than the cat who threw out a pitch last week. and the buildup to the world cup with a tougher than expected

matchup against azerbaijan. the u.s. went on to win 2-0. all right, now, to some wild weather that was caught on camera in north dakota. look at this video here. oil workers didn't know what to do when they saw this tornado touch down. well, they got in their truck but they didn't leave because they didn't know which way the twister was headed. nine people were in that truck. >> they didn't have anything -- they were almost looking straight up at the tornado, just like yards away from it. it was pretty fascinating. we did see, again, yesterday, some really bad storms go through the houston area. this is now the third round of storms this morning that they've dealt with within the last 24 hours. severe thunderstorm warning from houston down galveston. look at that, almost 5 inches of rain in the last 48 hours. they have flash flood warnings

for the houston area. this weather pattern is going to continue to plague the region with showers and downpowers. in orange and red colors, that's as much as 4 to 5 inches of rain from new orleans to houston today and tomorrow. temperature change much chillier from new york city to boston. that cold front is going to make itself felt today. 67 with showers compared to mid-80s yesterday. if you're in philly, up to boston, it's definitely not summer anymore. it's spring. >> we found a little bit of that humidity here at least less than a day. >> it will be back. you got cocktails, you got firearms, but together, a shooting range gets a liquor license. plus, the rich get richer, what an average ceo is paid now in eight figures. that's not all. we're back in two. [ male announcer ] people all over the world know us,

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honestly, the off-season isn't i've got a lot to do. that's why i got my surface. it's great for watching game film and drawing up plays. it's got onenote, so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go! alright, fellas. alright, russ. back to work!

let's get down to business with cnbc morgan brennan. good morning, morgan. >> good morning, frances. look no hands.

goog is building a driverless car with no steering wheel and brakes. currently has a top speed of 25 miles per hop. sergey brin intends to put the car on the street sometime this world. many expect to work longer and transition to retirement by shifting from full to part-time jobs and half believe the next generation will be worse off than they are. but it is good to be a ceo a study finds the average pay for chief executives topped $10 million last year. it's the fourth straight year their pay has risen. ceos now make 257 times the average worker salary. frances, back to you. >> morgan thank you very much. some other parties, texas tea party, the oldest member to

ever serve in the house of representatives lost his primary runoff. 91-year-old republican ralph hall, a world war ii veteran who boasts the story of bonnie and clyde lost his term. firearms and booze. the city of oklahoma city has approved a gun range. that's right, all under the same roof. they have a no tolerance rule, no shooting after awe drink. new york city cops will now be carrying albums for heroin overdoses. the state is providing nra-can kits to battle the recent epidemic. they say the drug will save lives for its ability to reduce opiate. hillary clinton new book. that are powered by the moon.

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i got here. when asked if he's innocent of the criminal charges he paused for four seconds, reportedly chuckled softly and said, quote, you know, it depends on what you're asking of me. former president underwent knee surgery in chicago this weekend. the surgery was successful adding, quote, he was able to walk and down the stairs just a couple hours after the surgery. senator rand paul spent the afternoon with free eye surgery. paul was an opt moll gist. excerpts have been released from hillary clinton's new book "hard choices." in her author's notes she talked about some other title she is considered for her memoir. >> when i began this book, i considered a number of titles

one proposed "it takes a world" a sequel to "it takes a village." my favorite is scrunchy chronicles. the president tested out a basketball catapult and talked about his own science experiments he attempted back in the day. >> when i was growing up, my science fair projects were not as successful as the ones here. [ laughter ] one year, i accidentally killed some plants that were part of my experiment. another time, a bunch of mice escaped in my grandmother's apartment. [ laughter ] >> all right. that is your "morning dish of scrambled politics." this morning, i'm joined by "washington post" report ed o'keefe. ed, thanks for being with us.

>> great to see you, frances. >> let's start off with a lot of anticipation for president obama's speech at west point later today. he is expected to address the end of the war in afghanistan and american foreign policy going forward. what is at stake for the president, especially with the v.a. scandal? does it have potential to overshadow the president's message? >> certainly, because it continues to be a big topic of concern on capitol hill where it's going to be hearing later tonight. we don't often have hearings tonight. there will be with v.a. officials later. you know, the president trying to reset his foreign policy after months, especially the criticism in the past year with the way he's handled relations with syria, russia, whatnot. you're right, that v.a. scandal continues to be a big concern with the administration continually trying to adjust the problem and get ahead of it for what might be coming down the pike. >> the president addressed it

three days in a row. afghanistan at the arlington memorial cemetery, and then memorial day and his weekly radio address. is the white house sending a message about those addresses? >> i think they're acknowledging that they're aware of the situation and they're working on it. at some point, we're expected the v.a. secretary eric shinseki to share his initial findings of his ongoing review with the president probably by the end of the week. and that will give them another opportunity to demonstrate that they're at least addressing the situation. not necessarily on top of it because certainly, they've appeared flat-footed in recently responding to the allegations. but they're going to say they're looking into it and continuing to focus on it. the big date to circle is a date in august when the inspector general comes back with substance of how big this entire problem is and how the initial allegations out of phoenix are actually true. now to the first lady

michelle obama criticizing house republicans to trying to roll back the standards. the first lady says the last thing we can do is play politics with kids' health but are politics being played by the gop? >> you know, to some extent they are, there's concerns that school districts might not be able to meet the standards and it's costing the school districts so much. what's interesting the first lady is speaking up. just as this documentary, maybe you heard of it "fed up." airing in some areas in the country. they take the first lady to task for not challenging this issue enough. remember, she launched her "let's move!" campaign at the start of the obama presidency, on the beginning, there was a focus on health and dieting. this appears to be a return to those issues. >> connecting those dots. ed o'keefe, thank you as always.

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so rumor has it that george clooney and fiancee has selected a castle from downton abbey. month word if they're going to buzz people around on their private jets and all that. >> in my room was 800. >> something like that.

keeping it real. this is actually real. if you would have told me about this, i wouldn't have believed you. you have video of an amazing lightning strike. >> it's pretty cool. you got to listen to it first and then we'll explain what happened. that's debris. this is a storm chaser in south dakota. he's out there. the end of the day, a rainbow in the background. and then out of nowhere, this cloud of round of lightning strikes. you can see the puff of smoke. now, it didn't hit the car, it hit right next to it. what you saw flying in the air was the actual asphalt. that's the spot where the lightning hit. it literally turned it into charcoal and even took a chunk out of the pavement. there's a good reason why we tell everyone to stay indoors. i want to till, you know our kids we put them in music classes and everything? >> of course. >> how about cute little otters. look at these guys. the small otters at the

smithsonian national zoo. it's called the zoo's enrichment fram. >> the what? >> the zoo's enrichment program for the otters. >> great. >> that's "first look" on msnbc. "way too early" with thomas roberts starting right now. ♪ [ laughter ] >> bachelor parties are not for the groom. >> you can believe this, every man of a certain age would love for bill murray to crash his bachelor party. the actor's sage words of advice for anyone considering marriage. edward snowden 2.0. to covert spy, who do you believe? exit strategy.

how president obama is bringing the troops home just in time for a new president. this is "way too early." ♪ all right, everybody. good morning, i'm thomas roberts. it's wednesday, may 28th. welcome to "way too early." a show putting together a collection to buy the l.a. clippers. right now, we're $2.5 billion short. thanks to jen's contribution here, we're up to $11 in the "way too early" cut. we'll be up to $13.50 by the end of the show. we'll see how it goes here. we want to start with the lead story, that is, after 13 years in the slog of war, president obama is ushering the beginning of the end of american operations in afghanistan. >> america's combat mission will be over by the end of this year. starting next year, afghans will be fully responsible for securing their country. i've made it clear that we're open to cooperating with